Scribe Identification for Tang Dynasty Changsha Kiln Poetic Ceramics Using a Dual-Path Multi-Scale Global Attention Model

Scribe Identification for Tang Dynasty Changsha Kiln Poetic Ceramics Using a Dual-Path Multi-Scale Global Attention Model | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Scribe Identification for Tang Dynasty Changsha Kiln Poetic Ceramics Using a Dual-Path Multi-Scale Global Attention Model Cheng Jiang, Mingjun Li, Yangchen Guo, Yanbo Zhang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7182309/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 11 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in npj Heritage Science → Version 1 posted 8 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The poetic ceramics of the Changsha Kiln during the Tang Dynasty are an important part of China’s cultural heritage, known for their special calligraphy styles and abundant historical and cultural connotations. Until now, Studies have mainly concentrated on the linguistic content of these inscriptions, while the identification and study of the individual scribes has not yet been explored. There is also no publicly available dataset of Changsha Kiln calligraphy characters. Experts specializing in ancient handwriting are primarily consulted in conventional methods of investigation. They are time-consuming, difficult to scale, and have no standard, objective metrics due to the inherent differences in expert judgment. To overcome these limitations, we have assembled a dataset of Changsha Kiln calligraphic characters from the Tang dynasty. The dataset contains 1,865 character images (160×150) from 135 different ceramic objects with poetic texts. We suggest a new Dual outwardly dual-path network with Multi-Scale Global Attention (MSGA) module for scribble identification and categorization. The proposed model takes features from character pairs and compares them for scribe attribution. The core framework utilizes two weight-sharing paths. In each path, ResNet-34 is utilized as the backbone feature extraction network. Crucially, we integrated an MSGA module into this backbone. The MSGA module applies convolutional kernels of three different scales simultaneously and fuses multi-scale results. It computes attention distributions at each scale to model long-distance dependencies between each pixel which enhances the model's ability to capture the relationship between local details and global features and enhances the model's sensitivity to subtle handwriting characteristics. Experimental results show that using a standard Non-Local attention module achieved a precision of 93.75%. The proposed MSGA module significantly increased precision to 97.85%. Our application which we use in classifying Changsha Kiln ceramics, further revealed that two inscribed ceramic pieces, housed in separate museums, were written by the same scribe. The proposed technique identifies variations between scribes of poetic inscriptions from the Tang Dynasty Changsha kiln as well as differentiates different calligraphic styles. This paper proposes a new quantitative approach for analysing Changsha Kiln calligraphy styles, which can offer a valid objective way to identify scribes. Tang Dynasty Changsha Kiln poetic Multi-Scale Global Attention (MSGA) ResNet-34 feature extraction Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 11 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in npj Heritage Science → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 03 Sep, 2025 Reviews received at journal 12 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 Aug, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 03 Aug, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 03 Aug, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 23 Jul, 2025 First submitted to journal 22 Jul, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7182309","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":495722001,"identity":"49fd823b-6f04-4a3a-8180-add9d9588bf6","order_by":0,"name":"Cheng Jiang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Cheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Jiang","suffix":""},{"id":495722002,"identity":"e0747198-a538-4404-a8d6-55c530caaffd","order_by":1,"name":"Mingjun Li","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mingjun","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""},{"id":495722003,"identity":"ba4bbb34-bb11-4ed4-ba75-4db29c764327","order_by":2,"name":"Yangchen Guo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yangchen","middleName":"","lastName":"Guo","suffix":""},{"id":495722005,"identity":"0dbdf562-3de0-497b-a8f0-0bbbae4b0fc3","order_by":3,"name":"Yanbo Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA8ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCShtwMB8DMpMIFoLWxrJWnjMiNMiP7v52cOvbXZ55uw93x583HGYgZ89x4Dh5w7cWhjnHDM3lm1LLrbsObvdcOaZwwySPW8MGHvP4NbCLJFgJi3Zxpy44UbuNmnetsMMBjdyDJgZ23BrYZNI/wbUUg/UkvNM+i9Qiz0hLTwSOWaSH9sOg7SwSTOCbJEgoEVCIqdMmuHc8cSdPcfMJHvb0nkkzjwrONiLR4v8jPRtkj/KqhO3szc/k/jZZi3H35688cFPPFrAQcDLhuRSEHEAvwZgQP/4Q0jJKBgFo2AUjGgAABU7UDnCzS7jAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yanbo","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-22 04:08:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7182309/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7182309/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-02152-5","type":"published","date":"2026-03-11T16:00:01+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104739684,"identity":"7874e5ce-9364-4573-abfa-0b0e63404ba3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-16 16:12:00","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1980509,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ScribeIdentificationforTangDynastyChangshaKilnPoeticCeramicsUsingaDualPathMultiScaleGlobalAttentionModel.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7182309/v1_covered_b370e434-dbfd-419f-a4c0-c0b0a1998b62.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Scribe Identification for Tang Dynasty Changsha Kiln Poetic Ceramics Using a Dual-Path Multi-Scale Global Attention Model","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"npj-heritage-science","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"hsci","sideBox":"Learn more about [Heritage Science](http://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com)","snPcode":"40494","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/40494/3","title":"npj Heritage Science","twitterHandle":"@SpringerOpen","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC/SO AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Tang Dynasty Changsha Kiln poetic, Multi-Scale Global Attention (MSGA), ResNet-34, feature extraction","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7182309/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7182309/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe poetic ceramics of the Changsha Kiln during the Tang Dynasty are an important part of China\u0026rsquo;s cultural heritage, known for their special calligraphy styles and abundant historical and cultural connotations. Until now, Studies have mainly concentrated on the linguistic content of these inscriptions, while the identification and study of the individual scribes has not yet been explored. There is also no publicly available dataset of Changsha Kiln calligraphy characters. Experts specializing in ancient handwriting are primarily consulted in conventional methods of investigation. They are time-consuming, difficult to scale, and have no standard, objective metrics due to the inherent differences in expert judgment. To overcome these limitations, we have assembled a dataset of Changsha Kiln calligraphic characters from the Tang dynasty. The dataset contains 1,865 character images (160\u0026times;150) from 135 different ceramic objects with poetic texts. We suggest a new Dual outwardly dual-path network with Multi-Scale Global Attention (MSGA) module for scribble identification and categorization. The proposed model takes features from character pairs and compares them for scribe attribution. The core framework utilizes two weight-sharing paths. In each path, ResNet-34 is utilized as the backbone feature extraction network. Crucially, we integrated an MSGA module into this backbone. The MSGA module applies convolutional kernels of three different scales simultaneously and fuses multi-scale results. It computes attention distributions at each scale to model long-distance dependencies between each pixel which enhances the model's ability to capture the relationship between local details and global features and enhances the model's sensitivity to subtle handwriting characteristics. Experimental results show that using a standard Non-Local attention module achieved a precision of 93.75%. The proposed MSGA module significantly increased precision to 97.85%. Our application which we use in classifying Changsha Kiln ceramics, further revealed that two inscribed ceramic pieces, housed in separate museums, were written by the same scribe. The proposed technique identifies variations between scribes of poetic inscriptions from the Tang Dynasty Changsha kiln as well as differentiates different calligraphic styles. This paper proposes a new quantitative approach for analysing Changsha Kiln calligraphy styles, which can offer a valid objective way to identify scribes.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Scribe Identification for Tang Dynasty Changsha Kiln Poetic Ceramics Using a Dual-Path Multi-Scale Global Attention Model","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-08-06 09:47:22","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7182309/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-09-03T06:43:45+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-08-12T13:42:43+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"340267668201881114922986082718081609641","date":"2025-08-06T11:25:56+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"56627476035585741018951325541992373613","date":"2025-08-05T03:34:20+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-08-04T03:45:30+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-08-04T01:16:53+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-07-23T04:47:25+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"npj heritage science","date":"2025-07-22T04:05:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"npj-heritage-science","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"hsci","sideBox":"Learn more about [Heritage Science](http://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com)","snPcode":"40494","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/40494/3","title":"npj Heritage Science","twitterHandle":"@SpringerOpen","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC/SO AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"20d68757-7ac7-4677-8fa7-8f94040de5b5","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 6th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-16T16:07:42+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-7182309","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-02152-5","journal":{"identity":"npj-heritage-science","isVorOnly":false,"title":"npj Heritage Science"},"publishedOn":"2026-03-11 16:00:01","publishedOnDateReadable":"March 11th, 2026"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-08-06 09:47:22","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s40494-025-02152-5","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-02152-5","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7182309","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7182309","identity":"rs-7182309","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}